Wednesday, July 24, 2013

What is Joy Castro reading?

Simone Weil’s classic 1939 essay The Iliad or the Poem of Force is a short book, but it’s been taking me a long time to read, because I’ve been going very slowly, taking notes, asking questions, and paraphrasing Weil’s key ideas for myself.

Weil was a French philosopher and mystic, and The Iliad or the Poem of Force is her meditation on how violence functions. It dovetails well with Elaine Scarry’s The Body in Pain and Jonathan Glover’s Humanity: A Moral History of the Twentieth Century, two brilliant and painful...[read on]

The irresistible, razor-sharp second book in the post-Katrina New Orleans-set crime series featuring unforgettable and gutsy reporter Nola Céspedes

Early one morning, Times-Picayune crime reporter Nola Céspedes goes for her regular run in Audubon Park. More than the heat of the dawning New Orleans day, she’s trying to outrun her growing unease with the man she's seeing, who is pushing her to get more serious. Instead, Nola finds herself at the scene of a crime when she discovers a dead body. Worse, Nola recognizes the victim: Judith Taffner, her former journalism professor at Tulane.

Not convinced Dr. Taffner’s murder was the random work of a psychopath, and not one to put much trust in the good ol’ boys of the NOPD, Nola takes it upon herself to investigate. She discovers that Dr. Taffner was working on two explosive stories, both of which would shock even this notoriously corrupt city. And when an apparently related murder occurs in the middle of New Orleans’ packed Jazz Fest, Nola realizes it’s only a matter of time before she becomes a ruthless killer's next target.

Rich with details of New Orleans and featuring an original, tough heroine as fascinating as the city itself, Nearer Home is the perfect follow-up to Joy Castro’s Hell or High Water, confirming her status as a talented new crime writer to watch.